GEORGE WASHINGTON Burial Grave TOMB MOUNT VERNON ~ Old 1838 Art Print Engraving

Description: THE TOMB OF WASHINGTON, MOUNT VERNON Artist: William Henry Bartlett ____________ Engraver: J. Cousen Note: the title in the table above is printed below the engraving CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE 19th CENTURY DECORATIVE LANDSCAPE & TOPOGRAPHICAL PRINTS LIKE THIS !! PRINT DATE: This lithograph was printed by George Virtue in London in 1838; it is not a modern reproduction in any way. PRINT SIZE: Overall print size is 10 1/2 inches by 7 1/2 inches including white borders, actual scene is 4 3/4 inches by 7 1/8 inches. PRINT CONDITION: Condition is excellent. Bright and clean. Blank on reverse. Paper is quality woven rag stock. SHIPPING: Buyer to pay shipping, domestic orders receives priority mail, international orders receive regular mail unless otherwise specified. Details on payment will be in an email after auction closes. THIS PRINT IS FROM THE LATE 1830s & IS NOT A MODERN REPRODUCTION IN ANY WAY! FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: The current of life, seems to be too rapid in America to allow time for reflection upon any thing which can possibly be deferred. The monuments are left unfinished on our battle-fields; the tombs of great men become indistinguishable before marked with a stone; and the sacred places where patriotism has dwelt, are rated by the value of their material, and left to decay. It is difficult to visit Mount Vernon, and feel, from any mark of care or respect visible about it, that America owes any thing to the sacred ashes it entombs. The family tomb at Mount Vernon has once been robbed by a sacrilegious ruffian, whose ignorance alone preserved for us the remains of Washington. It has been proposed to Congress to buy Mount Vernon, and establish a guard over relics so hallowed. Why should not this be done, and a sufficient sum be appropriated to enclose and keep in order the whole estate, improve the execrable road leading to it from Alexandria, and employ persons to conduct strangers over the place? The vault in which the ashes of Washington repose, is at the distance of, perhaps, thirty rods from the house, immediately upon the bank of the river. A more romantic and picturesque site for a tomb can scarcely be imagined. Between it and the Potomac is a curtain of forest-trees, covering the steep declivity to the water's edge, breaking the glare of the prospect, and yet affording glimpses of the river, where the foliage is thickest. The tomb is surrounded by several large native oaks, which are venerable by their years, and which annually strew the sepulchre with autumnal leaves, furnishing the most appropriate drapery for the place, and giving a still deeper impression to the memento mori. Interspersed among the oaks, and overhanging the tomb, is a copse of red cedar, whose evergreen boughs present a fine contrast to the hoary and leafless branches of the oak; and while the deciduous foliage of the latter indicates the decay of the body, the eternal verdure of the former furnishes a fitting emblem of the immortal spirit. The sacred and symbolic cassia was familiar to Washington, and, perhaps, led to the selection of a spot where the evergreen flourished. One of the most interesting associations with the tomb of Washington, is La Fayette's visit to it, as related by Levasseur:- "After a voyage of two hours, the guns of Fort Washington announced that we were approaching the last abode of the father of his country. At this solemn signal, to which the military band accompanying us responded by plantive strains, we went on deck, and the venerable soil of Mount Vernon was before us. At this view, an involuntary and spontaneous movement made us kneel. We landed in boats, and trod upon the ground so often trod by the feet of Washington. A carriage received Greneral Lafayette; and the other visitors silently ascended the precipitous path which conducted to the solitary habitation of Mount Vernon. In re-entering beneath this hospitable roof, which had sheltered him when the reign of terror tore him violently from his country and family, George Lafayette felt his heart sink within him, at no more finding him whose paternal care had softened his misfortunes; while his father sought with emotion for every thing which reminded him of the companion of his glorious toils. "Three nephews of General Washington took Lafayette, his son, and myself, to conduct us to the tomb of their uncle: our numerous companions remained in the house. In a few minutes the cannon, thundering anew, announced that Lafayette rendered homage to the ashes of Washington. Simple and modest as he was during life, the tomb of the citizen hero is scarcely perceived among the sombre cypresses by which it is surrounded. A vault, slightly elevated and dodded over-a wooden door without inscriptions-some withered and green garlands, indicate to the traveller who visits the spot, where rest in peace the puissant arms which broke the chains of his country. As we approached, the door was opened. Lafayette descended alone into the vault, and a few minutes after re-appeared, with his eyes overflowing with tears. He took his son and me by the hand, and led us into the tomb, where, by a sign, he indicated the coffin. We knelt reverentially, and rising, threw ourselves into the arms of Lafayette, and mingled our tears with his." BIOGRAPHY OF ARTIST AND HISTORY OF THIS PRINT: William Henry Bartlett, (born in London, 26 March 1809; died at sea off Malta, 13 Sept 1854) was an English draughtsman, active also in the Near East, Continental Europe and North America. He was a prolific artist and an intrepid traveler. His work became widely known through numerous engravings after his drawings published in his own and other writers' topographical books. His primary concern was to extract the picturesque aspects of a place and by means of established pictorial conventions to render 'lively impressions of actual sights', as he wrote in the preface to The Nile Boat (London, 1849). The background for his work on his views of American Scenery, of which the picture represented is one of his several hundred illustrations on the subject, is as follows: In early 1836, having just returned from completing a series of sketches of the Low Countries of the Netherlands area, Mr. Bartlett's success with prior illustration projects allowed him to remain at home for only a month. His name, as an artist, was exceedingly popular. Everything to which he lent the charm of his pencil was crowned with success; and thus encouraged, his publisher, George Virtue and Sons of London, resolved upon another extensive illustrative work, that of the new lands of America. The idea was suggested by Mr. Nathaniel Parker Willis, to whom Mr. Bartlett had struck up a promising friendship. In April 1836, Mr. Bartlett went to Paris, and then to Havre where he boarded a large steamship to New York. This would be one of three visits to North America by Bartlett, this first venture lasting the longest, from July or August of 1836 to July 1837. The second tour in 1838 lasted from early summer to December, and the last in 1841-1842 was more focused on drawings of Canada than the USA. All of his American Scenery plates bear the date of 1837, 1838 or 1839. Bartlett's illustrations were of most of the popular views and places of the time. Not willing or able to take the time to leave the more frequented routes, Bartlett usually sketched the picturesque or sublime views that were reasonably close and often identifiable because other travelers and artists had referred to them. Working as he did on commission from Virtue, having no "permanent share or copyright" on his works, being often absent from home for long periods, it was really little wonder that he kept to fairly well-known itineraries, which would give him the best chance to fill his portfolio with sketches for the machine of which he was so important a part. He was also able to get assistance from NP Willis in planning his route, as this well known American author and journalist had traveled extensively in the Eastern US and in 1827 and 1836 had visited Niagara Falls by way of the Erie Canal. Bartlett was quoted as saying that nothing struck him as much in America "so much as its comparative want of associations". Here he had to accept a landscape nearly empty of a long tradition of architecture, of all the antiquities and monuments found so often in his views of Europe and the Middle East. However, the opposite was true that America offered Bartlett to record a landscape before it became settled. "He who traveled in America", said Willis, "must feed his imagination on the future. Instead of looking through a valley, which has presented the same aspect for hundreds of years, the American sees a valley with what it will be, the villages that will soon sparkle on the hill-sides, the mills, bridges, canals, and railroads that will span and border the stream. And it is for this fact that Bartlett's views of America are so valuable, because they capture the landscape before the developments of man set in: the buildings, barges, viaducts, cart paths and roads and deforestation that now make certain views nearly unrecognizable from this period. Please note: the terms used in our auctions for engraving, etching, heliogravure, lithograph, photogravure etc. are ALL prints on paper, and NOT blocks of steel or wood. "ENGRAVINGS" is the term commonly used for these paper prints that were created from a master plate, and were the most common method in the 1700s and 1800s for illustrating old books. These paper prints or "engravings" were inserted into the book with a tissue guard or onion skin frontis to protect them from transferring the image to the opposite page. These prints were usually on much thicker quality woven rag stock paper, although many were also printed and issued as loose stand alone lithographs. So this auction is for an antique paper print(s), probably from an old book, of very high quality and usually on very thick rag stock paper.

Price: 6.39 USD

Location: New Providence, New Jersey

End Time: 2025-01-20T17:35:44.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.95 USD